GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WXMI/WXYZ) — A five-day vacation turned into a 24-day nightmare for four University of Michigan students who got into a car crash while on spring break in Mexico.
Two of the four that were still in Cancun headed back to Michigan Thursday.
Related: Michigan students injured while on spring break in Cancun, 1 remains in ICU
Freddie DeLaRosa and three of his friends went to Mexico at the end of February.
They went to relax, however, on just the second day of their trip on Feb. 27, a van smashed into their car while they were driving to the beach to watch the sunset.
"On the way to the beach, we got caught in traffic, so we were trying to cross a road and the traffic got extremely congested," DeLaRosa said.
DeLaRosa said three of them lost consciousness from the impact of the crash. All four of them had to be hospitalized.
"I do not remember anything until waking up in the hospital four days later," DeLaRosa said.
Delrosa said he fractured his pelvis and skull in the crash.
Doctors discharged DeLaRosa, the driver and another passenger a few days ago, but he stayed in Mexico to help his friend Dipita Das get home.
According to DeLaRosa, Das sustained some pretty serious injuries that kept her in the intensive care unit. She has a broken arm and pelvis, a bruised lung and heart and needs machines to breathe. He says Das' parents immigrated to the States and don't speak English or Spanish.
He and his mom stayed behind to serve as translators, but more importantly started a GoFundMe page to raise $50,000 for an ambulance flight back home.
Thankfully, donations to the GoFundMe account helped them send her back to Detroit Thursday on an emergency ambulance flight. DeLaRosa says Das will likely be in the ICU for another three weeks.
“Dipita is a very involved person in the community. Whether that’s in her hometown of Detroit, or on U of M’s campus, she is extremely involved, always willing to help people, extremely kind and caring for others and just like an advocate in like every scenario, essentially. And year, I really do believe that she deserves all the support that she can get. She has definitely done more than enough and gone above and beyond and, in life, all of her life, to like support others. We’re very glad that people are supporting her now,” he said.
